Topics to Look Forward To

Some Things I'm Brainstorming for this Project

Here’s a brief list of topics I'm planning to consider in "After Academics":

- The decline of "The Humanities" and "Liberal Education" core requirements at many colleges and universities (the university I worked at became too afraid to use the term "Liberal" anymore and shifted to "Core Curriculum". Really).

- Who can afford Higher Ed? How do we understand the different roles of "Elite" institutions vs. public? R1 vs. teaching-centric? Undergrad-focused vs. graduate? 2-year community colleges granting AA degrees vs. 4-year colleges or universities offering BAs? How do we make sense of the variety? Where do we find challenges and opportunities?

- What types of alternatives to traditional Higher Ed are available? What are their advantages and disadvantages?

- What types of content and what media are students most successful using? What are they most interested in using?

- What is the role of in-person instruction? Remote, synchronous group instruction? One on one? Asynchronous? Self-paced?

- How relevant will degrees and accreditation continue to be? If they become less of a requirement for employment or if the delta between lifetime salaries with and without a bachelor’s degree changed, what would that mean for other learning opportunities?

- How will students choose teachers? What clues or metrics will indicate whom they can trust?

- Are there aggregation opportunities, where people offering content directly to students can be seen and where students could put together a "program" that included courses in a variety of subjects from a variety of providers?

- How can people who want to study or research a topic with some rigor develop the skills they'll need to do so?

These are just a few of the things I thought I might explore -- some are based on ideas in a private chat message I got from

Tracy Gustilo

after our lunch and conversation last week. I imagine as I drill down into any of these, new ideas will proliferate that I can explore. The general theme, I think, will be pretty consistently about the space that's opening up for new media to expand people's opportunities to pursue learning, and the opportunities and challenges this will create for people who in a previous generation would have been faculty or students in Higher Ed.

There are already plenty of people in this space, exploring and reporting about many of these issues. I'll be reading and reacting to many of these folks, some of whom I imagine will have quite different perspectives from mine. Hopefully that interaction will enhance my understanding and generate interesting new ideas. I'll plan to divide my time and my posts, each week, to a bit of both.

Please drop me a line or leave a comment about other topics I ought to include in this list? I’ll get started in the coming week, so stay tuned…